Skinner to Host Fine Books and Manuscripts Auction Featuring Presidential DocumentsBOSTON, Mass. – May 22, 2013 – Skinner, Inc. will host an auction of Fine Books & Manuscripts on June 1st in its Boston gallery. The sale will feature a large group of Audubon imperial folio prints of

collectors, the first published edition of the Latin Bible with commentary (the Glossa Ordinaria) from the 1480s will be on offer (lot 77, $40,000 to $60,000), bound in four large folio volumes, with illuminated initials. A rare Jacobean psalm book in English from 1625 (lot 332, $1,000 to $1,500) is notable for its original memento mori silk embroidered binding, still intact after more than 375 years, worked with metallic and silk embroidery thread, and embellished with sequins.

The first English edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, illustrated by Cruikshank presents well in a two-volume set in a state of excellent preservation, in leather bindings by Riviere (lot 182, $3,000 to $5,000).

Natural History Prints
An inscribed first octavo edition of Audubon’s Birds of America in seven volumes will be offered at the sale (lot 406, $35,000 to $55,000). The work, illustrated with 500 full-color images of North American birds is a landmark in the study of ornithology, and inscribed copies are rarely presented on the market. The sale will also include a group of approximately forty imperial folio prints of Audubon quadrupeds, a first edition of the octavo quadrupeds set (lot 407, $5,000 to $7,000), and several folio bird prints.

A striking hand-colored engraving of a tomato in fruit from Besler’s Hortus Eystettensis (lot 417, $900 to $1,200) invites thoughts of summer harvest, while the sale of original artwork for several New Yorker cartoons from the 1960s allow collectors the opportunity to own something unique from a favorite American literary publication (lots 425-430, estimates ranging from $600 to $1,500).

Antique Maps
Blaeu’s monumental two-volume work on Dutch cities and towns from 1649, bound in full gilt-tooled red morocco, is sumptuously illustrated throughout with views, maps, and plans (lot 439, $15,000 to $20,000). Sauthier’s imposing and detailed map of New York State from 1779 was of pivotal use during the American Revolution (lot 463, $10,000 to $15,000) and gave great advantage to the British. The English Pilot, was published in 1794, and this copy includes twenty-five detailed maps of ports from Hudson’s Bay to the Amazon (lot 466, $10,000 to $12,000).